Hi, I'm Anna

Let me codethat for you*

(*I can also help you outif you're a startup)

About me

An introduction

Who I am

Hi! My name is Anna Spysz and I used to just write, edit, and translate things for a living - now I also code them (feature upgrade!). I also help startups present themselves to the world, and am working a few of my own startups on the side. Sometimes I also take pictures, and other times I make music. Mostly, though, I just want to keep reading, learning, and traveling.

Resume

My life in numbers

Why you should hire me

Experience & Reviews

Experience

I am the co-author and editor of the book The Essential Guide to Being Polish, released July 2013. I also recently wrote and was the project manager for a workbook for startups titled PowerGuide for InnoEnergy. You can read an excerpt from it here.

I have experience as both a freelance writer and tech journalist and as an editor, with over four years of combined experience as the editor-in-chief of a newspaper and online publication, and am available for freelance commissions. My areas of expertise include tech and startups (particularly cleantech), history, politics, European culture, and literature in emigration, though I am an obsessive reader of physics, astronomy and neuroscience books and love to write on those topics as well. I have been interviewed in a variety of media on the topic of current events in Poland, including the BBC and ABC News in the U.S.

I am interested in writing about technology, current trends in science (particularly astrophysics), and new media. I also have experience as a music journalist, having written for several blogs in the past as well as starting my own music publication.

In addition to writing, I am also a freelance translator, and started my own location-independent translation business in January 2011 called Tłumaczenia Bez Biura (Translations Without an Office). I specialize in Polish to English translation, as well as proofreading or copyediting already translated English text.

Reviews of The Essential Guide to Being Polish

"[A] carefully researched but reader-friendly peregrination through the story of Poland—a thrilling if sometimes depressing ride you wouldn't believe if you read it in a novel. . . . I can say honestly . . . that The Essential Guide to Being Polish will not disappoint." — Krakow Post

"Do you plan to visit Poland for the first time? Are you contemplating a return trip? Do you enjoy reading about other countries and their cultures? If you answered 'yes' to any of the above then you must read The Essential Guide to Being Polish. . . . Once you start reading, you’ll want to read it all." — Am-Pol Eagle

"I invite you on this journey into the depths of the Polish soul." — from the Foreword by former Polish President Lech Walesa

“The Essential Guide to Being Polish recounts the political and cultural history of Poland—and, if you will, of Polishness—with a reader-friendly, streamlined clarity that is leavened with wit and timely, amusing turns, but that for all its playfulness never loses sight of the essential complexity of its subject.” —Stuart Dybek, award-winning author of The Coast of Chicago and I Sailed with Magellan

Selected Interviews

I was interviewed about the topic of women in tech and startups in Poland for the ProCEEd Podcast.

The Essential Guide to Being Polish

The Essential Guide to Being Polish

I'm the co-author and editor of the book The Essential Guide to Being Polish, a non-fiction work that "recounts the political and cultural history of Poland — and, if you will, of Polishness — with a reader-friendly, streamlined clarity that is leavened with wit and timely, amusing turns, but that for all its playfulness never loses sight of the essential complexity of its subject."

PowerGuide for InnoEnergy

PowerGuide for InnoEnergy

As the author and the project manager of the PowerGuide workbook (originally titled KICstart Your Business in its first edition) for InnoEnergy, a division of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, I wrote the contents of the workbook and supervised the design, layout, and printing of two editions of the workbook as well as the creation of the accompanying online tool for the entire project, which is currently used in six European city campuses to help foster innovation.

The workbook is only available to InnoEnergy students and encompasses 250 pages of content and exercises to help students turn their ideas into a startup in order to find a successful business model and build a great company around it. It contains the latest theories in Lean Startup and Customer Development, including Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design. You can read an excerpt here.

Bitspiration News

Bitspiration News

I co-founded and served as the editor in chief of the Bitspiration News website, covering a wide array of topics concerning technology and startups from Poland, including startup communities, mobile, social media, technology education, and most importantly, the people making an impact not just in Poland but worldwide. Bitspiration was created to fill a gap in the media coverage of technology news: the absence of news about what's happening in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.

The Polish Agnecy for Enterprise Development

The Polish Agnecy for Enterprise Development (PARP)

Web.gov.pl is a project of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. Its aim is to provide reliable information on the Polish startup ecosystem and promote Polish innovative companies internationally. On its pages you will find recent information about the most interesting start-ups from Poland, interviews with entrepreneurs and investors, as well as detailed studies on institutions supporting startups in Poland.

TEDxKraków

TEDxKraków

TEDxKraków is a group of volunteers acting to share “ideas worth spreading”. We believe that to be innovative, you have to think critically and out of the box. We connect people from different backgrounds and of different stories, who together want to make Kraków a better place and to inspire one another. To achieve this, since 2010 we have organized numerous meetings and events.

I was a member of the organizing team for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions of the conference, during which time I ran the English section of the blog and social media accounts, and helped in numerous organizational aspects.

Tagvenue

Tagvenue.com

Tagvenue is the UK's fastest growing venue marketplace. They want to make it easier for people to get together, whether it's to celebrate a birthday or wedding or to educate and inspire with a conference or team building event. That's why they've built a powerful, advanced search engine that makes finding and hiring the perfect venue quicker and easier than it's ever been.

As a content strategist, I conducted a comprehensive audit of Tagvenue's existing onsite and offsite content, created new content for the company as well as a Content Strategy Guide to refer to in the future.

Seed Labs

Seed Labs / Silvair

Seed Labs/Silvair's team of world class software developers, hardware engineers, UX designers, product managers and testers is building a growing network of products that are truly smart and user friendly. It's all about delivering comfort, safety and outstanding performance.

Neuro:on

Neuro:on

NeuroOn is the world’s first system, which allows you to modify your sleep paterns with patented light therapy. As a consultant, I advised the Neuro:on team on their major rebranding effort following their successful Kickstarter campaign.

Eventory

Eventory

Eventory is all that you need to go mobile. It is a cutting-edge app that connects organizers with attendees, lets you manage your event in real time, keeps your guests up-to-date with your event’s news, and increases attendee satisfaction.

As a copywriter and consultant, I helped create and edit content for the app's website and the App Store, as well as the application itself.

SXSW

SXSW

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW® is the premier destination for discovery.

I served as a Photo Crew Member for the Music section of the festival for two years, and as a press photographer for the Interactive section for one year. Several of my photographs have been featured in SXSWorld Magazine.

Unsound

Unsound

Unsound is an amorphous music festival based in Kraków, with events in New York, London, Adelaide. We deal with vibrant electronic, experimental, independent and club music scenes from all around the world. We often commission new work and collaborations, and like taking risks.

As the Festival's official (and sometimes only) photographer since 2010 (and unofficial photographer since the second edition in 2008), I've been with the festival almost from the start and have seen it grow from a tiny underground event to an international sensation in the world of electronic music. As such, my photographs have been featured in such publications as Resident Advisor and SPIN.

Sony Music

Sony Classical International

In December 2014 I had the great pleasure of photographing Craig Leon with the Sinfonietta Cracovia for Sony Music at the weird, trippy earth-bound spaceship that is Alvernia Studios. I've driven by the strange buildings countless times but have never been inside... until now. It was, needless to say, a trip out of this world.

Tłumaczenia Bez Biura

Tłumaczenia Bez Biura (Translations without an Office)

Tłumaczenia Bez Biura (Translations without an Office) is the translation and proofreading firm I founded in Poland. At Tłumaczenia Bez Biura, we believe that it's better to do one thing really well than offer a lot of services with varying quality. That's why we only specialize in written translations from Polish to English - and we're really good at it!

Ikropka

Ikropka

Ikropka is a publishing house that specializes in publishing on demand. Over the years of being a contract translator and copyeditor for the publishing house, I have translated and proofread numerous magazines, such as Airgate and Hi Fly, as well as internal magazines for such corporations as PMI.

Agricultural University in Krakow

Agricultural University in Krakow

The University of Agriculture in Krakow (UAK) is one of the leading universities in the area of life sciences in Poland. As a proofreader and translator for the institution, I have translated and edited numerous scientific articles for publication in scientific journals throughout the world.

Folia Horticulturae

Folia Horticulturae Journal

Folia Horticulturae is an international, scientific journal published in English. It covers a broad research spectrum of aspects related to horticultural science that are of interest to a wide scientific community and have an impact on progress in both basic and applied research carried out with the use of horticultural crops and their products. The journal’s aim is to disseminate recent findings and serve as a forum for presenting views as well as for discussing important problems and prospects of modern horticulture, particularly in relation to sustainable production of high yield and quality of horticultural products, including their impact on human health.

As the language editor, I am responsible for the quality of the publication's language and assuring the published articles meet the standards of international scientific research.

Polish Radio

Voices of the Past for Polish Radio

Polish Radio (Polskie Radio) is s Poland's national publicly funded radio broadcasting organization. I've worked with them in the past on several copywriting and translation projects, the lastest of which involved the translation of their location-based history application of iOS and Android called Voices of the Past.